1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a curling system for snack foods and specifically to a water spray-salting process that provides control for the amount of curl of the product (affecting the bulk density) as well as providing an adhesive for salt for low or no oil bearing food snacks.
2. Description of Related Art
Curled snack foods are generally well known in the art and many patents exist that disclose processes for flavoring snack foods. U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,268 discloses a seasoned cereal based snack food having a low fat and low moisture content edible adhesive on the surfaces thereof for adhering dry solids as seasoning to the surfaces of the snack food. The adhesive comprises an at least partially amorphous form of a mixture of at least one monosaccharide and at least one polyhydric, aliphatic, saturated alcohol having 3 to 6 carbon atoms. The adhesive is disposed on the surfaces of the snack food and usually a relatively uniform disposition of the adhesive is applied on substantially all surfaces of the snack food. In the process, the mixture of the adhesive is formed, heated, and cooled and then is sprayed onto the snack food to coat the surfaces with the mixture. Seasoning is then applied to the food and the snack food is cooled.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,919, there is disclosed a process for preparing a concave shaped snack food. In this case, the snack food is coated with a fused, substantially continuous particulate flavored topping composition. The coating composition covers the upper surface of the dough base without significant breaks in the coating. The coating forms a barrier to loss of moisture from the upper surface of the dough sheet and, as the dough base expands, when heated, sufficient resistance is present in the coating to cause the desired deformation to take place.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,269, discloses a method of spraying tortilla chips with oil and then salts them by passing the oiled pieces through a rotary tumbler where salt is applied by dusting the salt on all surfaces of the pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,548, discloses a method and apparatus for continuously producing tortilla chips that are fried and then passed through a salter. There is no disclosure as to how the salting apparatus functions.